Welcome to the AHMC Newsletter!

Welcome to Albertine Medical Healing Centre.

This first newsletter serves as both an introduction and an invitation. This is an opportunity to share who we are, what we have built, and where we are headed next.

Albertine Hospital Kisiita first opened its doors to patients on July 18th, 2022. Since that day, we have cared for more than 7,000 patients and expanded our campus to include a pediatric ward, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a 15-person guest house, and an operating theatre now double the size of our original. Our growth has been steady but rapid, always driven by the evolving needs of the Kakumiro community.

However you found this newsletter—whether through a friend, a donor, a partner, or simple curiosity—we welcome you into the mission, drive, and vision of AHMC. We hope you will remain engaged as we share more about our patients, the needs of this region, and the present and future growth unfolding within these walls.

For this initial newsletter, and particularly for readers who have never set foot on our medical campus, we wanted to offer an e-tour of the hospital and its ongoing developments. Last week I went around the campus and took photographs of the hospital infrastructure for the website. By using the arrow below, please scroll through the images to see the incredible progress this hospital has achieved in the 3.5 years since its opening day. There is additional information about the order in which the hospital buildings were constructed on the “About Us” page of the website.

Current Hospital Infrastructure

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We are especially excited to introduce our newly completed operating theatre construction site, where we have just received the final appliances and equipment required for full installation. This new theatre is nearly double the size and scope of our original operating room. Our current theatre will remain a minor operating theatre for smaller procedures, while the new space will allow us to perform more advanced and complex surgeries in a fully outfitted and professionally equipped environment comparable in size to operating theatres found in developed countries.

This theatre was constructed apart from the rest of the hospital, on the other side of the staff housing. A concrete path has been built to transport patients from the main hospital building to the operating room. In the photos below, you can see an outdoor sanitation station, the large operating room itself, the entryway (where one of our support staff members, Lennox, is cleaning), a doctor’s office, a doctor’s changing room, and finally the team helping unload some of the most important equipment from a delivery truck—automatic glass doors, our theatre light, drug cabinets, and a large sink for the sterilization process used by our surgeons and nurses. What is most exciting is that by the next blog post, this operating theatre will be fully furnished.

Operating Theatre 2.0: Opening March 2026!

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This milestone has been made possible largely through the generosity of our donor base in the United States. To every individual who contributed to this project: you are saving lives. Your support has tangibly transformed surgical care in Kisiita.

We have also received a new delivery bed for mothers in labor. As you will see in the comparative photos, this upgrade represents a significant improvement over our previous equipment. This bed will offer greater dignity, safety, and comfort during one of life’s most important moments. Not only has it been installed, but we have already delivered our first neonate on this bed. Below, our technician/nurse MJT is posing on our new delivery bed. Yes, it is neon pink.

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The coming newsletters will vary in focus depending on the updates and ongoing needs of our hospital. Here is what you can expect:

• A detailed report on our 2025 statistics and growth.

• Stories from long-term patients who choose to share their journeys.

• Results from an upcoming April study about the cost of care and the difficult realities that many families face in paying for treatment. We will be conducting a study to determine what percentage of our patients complete their full treatment plan versus those who leave due to financial constraints. Our null hypothesis is that more than 50% of incoming patients may leave before beginning or finishing treatment because they cannot afford the total cost of care.

As for the most urgent and immediate changes that will be made to the hospital in the upcoming months, I will direct you to the “NEEDED URGENTLY” tab on the “For Donors” page of the website. The items listed under this grouping represent our highest priorities. For example, I, Saylor Stottlemyer, am currently spending approximately a week in Europe with one of my main goals being to obtain 20 scrubs for our hospital staff at a reasonable price. Who knows—I may even be hand-stitching our logo onto the scrubs later this week. This will allow us to take professional photos of the entire staff at AHMC. We will then be able to add a new page to our “About Us” section titled “Our Staff,” which is very exciting. I cannot wait to introduce you to the incredible people that I work with every day.

From all of us at Albertine, thank you for walking with us as we continue to grow. If there are specific topics you would like to learn more about—life in Kisiita, rural emergency medicine, maternal health, surgical expansion, or hospital operations—we welcome your suggestions and questions.

From all of us here at AHMC, we wish you well and look forward to updating you more in the future.

Osibe Kurungi | Be well ,

Saylor Stottlemyer

Clinical Operations Liaison & EMT